By Keffer                                             H.B. No. 2839
         76R5986 JRD-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the expiration and the legislative review of state
 1-3     agency rules.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 2001.032, Government Code, is amended to
 1-6     read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 2001.032.  LEGISLATIVE REVIEW; EXPIRATION OF RECENTLY
 1-8     ADOPTED RULES.  (a)  A state agency rule that takes effect during
 1-9     the two calendar years preceding January 1 of the month in which a
1-10     regular session of the legislature convenes expires on February 1
1-11     during the regular session [Each house of the legislature by rule
1-12     shall establish a process under which the  presiding officer of
1-13     each house refers each proposed state agency rule to the
1-14     appropriate standing committee for review before the rule is
1-15     adopted].
1-16           (b)  A state agency shall deliver to the lieutenant governor
1-17     and the speaker of the house of representatives a copy of the
1-18     notice of any [a] proposed rule that [when] the agency files
1-19     [notice] with the secretary of state under  Section 2001.023 during
1-20     a regular session of the legislature, including a notice of a
1-21     proposed readoption of an expired rule. The state agency shall
1-22     deliver the copy of the notice concurrently with filing the notice
1-23     with the secretary of state. If a house of the legislature adopts a
1-24     rule directing a  state agency to deliver the notice to a committee
 2-1     of that house instead of the presiding officer, the agency shall
 2-2     comply with the rule.
 2-3           (c)  A state agency shall deliver to the presiding officer of
 2-4     each house of the legislature not later than the first  Monday
 2-5     after the date the legislature convenes in regular session a report
 2-6     that contains the name of the agency, the text of each of the
 2-7     agency's rules that will expire on February 1 under Subsection (a),
 2-8     and a copy of the agency's orders that finally adopted those rules.
 2-9     If a house of the legislature adopts a rule directing a state
2-10     agency to deliver the report to  a committee of that house instead
2-11     of the presiding officer, the agency shall comply with the rule [On
2-12     the vote of a majority of its members, a standing  committee may
2-13     send to a state agency a statement supporting or opposing adoption
2-14     of a proposed rule].
2-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.